http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123197Just as news broke of numerous Obama supporters flooding at least 70 newspapers with pro-Obama letters purportedly from average citizens, one woman – or perhaps a man – is now claiming to be the elusive and mysterious "Ellie Light."
As WND reported, a writer identified as "Ellie Light" has published identical letters in newspapers around the country. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Light claimed to have different hometowns within the respective newspaper readership areas. Each letter is nearly identical in grammar, style and subject.
"Today, the president is being attacked as if he'd promised that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never did," the person writes. "It's time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can't just wave a magic wand and fix everything."
Light's letters appeared in many mainstream publications, including Politico.com, the Washington Times, USA Today and even Thailand's Bangkok Post. In numerous letters, Ellie Light lists various hometowns in at least 31 states and the District of Columbia.
The Patterico's Pontifications blog posted links to 68 local publications, three national publications and two foreign publications that posted Light's letters.
A person claiming to be "Ellie Jeanne Light" called this morning into the radio show of Michael Smerconish, a Philadelphia host and Obama supporter. Light claimed to be a "traveling nurse" who lives in Southern California and visits hospitals around the country for 13 weeks at a time. During the interview, Smerconish believed he was talking to a woman.
"I'm finishing up a new assignment at an undisclosed place," Light said in a feminine voice. "I don't really want to say. And then hopefully I'll get to go back home."
California's Board of Registered Nursing does not list an Ellie Jeanne Light in its online license verification system. In at least one search, Ellie Light's IP address, a unique identifier, has been traced to Huntington Beach, Calif. Huntington Beach is located 16 miles from Long Beach, a hometown Ellie Light listed in letters to USA Today and the Washington Times.
Smerconish asked, "And you're passionate about the president?"
"Yes," the person responded, calling the president a "hero."
"For whatever reason, everybody's just deserting the hero," Light said. "It's only been a year. It seems odd."
The person continued:
The president does have an awful lot on his plate. There's lots that he has to do. He came in with two wars with record-setting deficit. Problems have been pushed forward – environmental problems – because they would be unpopular to deal with, by nature. That's why they were pushed forward, because nobody really wanted to. They would take hits.
The president has to make choices. Whatever choice he makes will anger half of the nation, which is why nobody wants to make them. For example, health care. For example, what to do about the deficit. For example, what to do about Afghanistan. If we leave Afghanistan we're cowards; we'll let the Taliban take over. If we don't leave, we're this Army of occupation. Those decisions finally fell on one executive's desk, and that's Barack.
Instead of saying, "We're going to let future generations deal with this," he's trying very hard to please everybody, and we all know what that looks like. He looks sort of desperate. He looks like a trial lawyer trying to reach a deal. In a way, that's kind of what he is.
Smerconish asked Light why many different hometowns were listed in the letters and why they were submitted to so many publications.
"I think it's fair to say that when commenting on national issues, it's perfectly fine to be from other parts of the United States, even when writing to a local newspaper," Light said. "However, I think I need to own up that I did misrepresent my location in some of those places."
The person continued, "If I was a reader in a smaller newspaper, and I had opened up letters to the editor and saw a letter of something of national importance and I thought that it was written by a neighbor of mine, I would give it more credence. I think, on second thought, on reflection, that's probably not a very good idea."
"Are you going to keep writing?" Smerconish asked.
"Yeah," Light replied.
The talk host asked Light if "she is tied in to some kind of a political operation and acting on the advice or on the behest of others."
"No, absolutely not. I'm only me," Light replied. "Sadly, I don't know why others haven't made the observation that, why are we all abandoning the president we so adored so quickly?"
Asked whether Light believes the president's mission may have been damaged when the writer submitted pro-Obama letters to nearly 70 publications with fictitious hometowns, the person replied, "Well yeah, which is, I think, one reason why I've said, 'You know, I did this. I fought the fight in various locations. I let the chips fall where they may because I want to make it clear that I'm the one that did it.'"
Just after the interview aired, a Frazier Park, Calif., nurse purportedly named Barbara Brooks, 51, contacted the Plain Dealer, claiming her ex-husband, Winston Steward, perpetuated a hoax and is the true Ellie Light.
She said Steward participated in the interview, pretending to be a woman.
However, other people have come forward, claiming to be Ellie Light. A WND message to a reported Ellie Light e-mail address has not been returned.
(Story continues below)
Aside from Light's messages, duplicate pro-Obama letters have been submitted to dozens of publications by writers identified as "Jan Chen," "Gloria Elle," "Cherry Jimenez," "Janet Leigh," "Earnest Gardner," "Jen Park," "Lars Deerman," "John F. Stott," "Gordon Adams," "Nancy Speed," "Sheila Price," "Clarence Ndangam," "Vernetta Mason," "Greg Mitchell," "Ermelinda Giurato," "J. Scott Piper," "Robert Vander Molen" and "Terri Reese."
In some cases, other writers in the list have appeared alongside Ellie Light's messages in newspaper letter-to-the-editor sections.
Just as news of Light's duplicate messages broke, readers began finding various letters written by "Mark Spivey," a writer who simultaneously claims to live in San Diego, Calif., and Naples, Fla. His pro-Obama letter, "Considering Afghanistan," was published by the Minnesota Daily, the Baltimore Chronicle, the San Diego Union-Tribune and Naples News.
Patterico's Pontifications also shared this letter from a Jan Chen of Seattle, published in Seattle's Northwest Asian Weekly:
As one listens to the Republican anger over health care reform, one can imagine an anti-government protester cheerfully paying premiums on insurance policies that drop you after you make a claim, or happily sauntering out of an emergency room that denied them treatment because of a coverage problem. One can imagine a town hall sign-waver enthusiastically forking over most of their pay to bill collectors after suffering a catastrophic injury, thinking, "Wow, the free market system is great."
Meanwhile, a woman identified as Gloria Elle wrote a nearly identical letter to the editor published by the Baltimore Chronicle:
As one listens to the Republican anger over health care reform, one can imagine an anti-government protester cheerfully paying premiums on insurance policies that cancel you for making a claim, or happily sauntering out of an emergency room that denied them treatment because of a coverage problem. One can imagine a town-hall sign-waver enthusiastically forking over most of their pay to bill collectors after suffering a catastrophic injury, thinking, "Wow, the free market system is great."
Patterico's Pontifications noted that letters by "John Stott," "Gloria Elle" and "Mark Spivey" had been published by Buzzflash, a website run by Mark Karlin & Associates, a Chicago-based public relations firm specializing in media relations, issues management, strategic positioning, public interest PR and advocacy campaigns.
President Obama's "grass-roots army," Organizing for America, has been known to conduct dozens of letter-writing campaigns geared toward the nation's newspapers. Its website allows Obama supporters to enter a zip code and draft a single letter to numerous local and national newspapers. Organizing for America provides several talking points, and letter writers are asked to type their message into a single field. The letter is automatically blasted to various outlets with a click of the "send" button.
The blogosphere is buzzing with reaction to the interview. Some comments include the following:
* She lied, what, 42 times? That's a little more than misrepresenting "in some places."A traveling nurse? I truly doubt it.
* So she is a liar just like Obama. Makes sense.
* Sure, that was the real Ellie Light. I want to see her birth certificate first.
* I have many questions about this woman. First, what prompted her to seek so many newspapers across the country? Wouldn't one have sufficed? What is the motivation? I am in doubt that she is doing this independently, even though she says otherwise. She has lied before, why believe her now?
* This is obviously not Ellie Light since Ellie Light doesn't exist and is part of a PR campaign just like Janet Leigh and Mark Spivey and the other aliases that have been discovered. This sounds more like someone trying to pull a look at me hoax than anything else and to make a joke out of the whole thing. The White House ordered these letters to be written. We aren't laughing or believing this cr-p for one second.
Topic: Newspaper spammer: 'Ellie Light' or Obama? (Read 576 times)